@phantomlink: There's already DLC for other games on the Wii. And you probably use the Wii points to get it. And the songs would be stored on SD cards i suppose. I can't see any gigantic obstacles.

Yin

@ThursdayNext: Well, if you're average MP3 is about 1MB/min (give or take), just the music could be about 4MB, on average. The note data probably isn't horribly big, but there are four tracks of data... The big space taker is the video in the background, because Rock Band on the Wii doesn't build that as 3D objects. Even if the compression on the video is really good (or really lossy, those backgrounds on RB1 aren't exacly crisp), we're probably looking at 20-30MB for each song, at least. You'll have to clear your memory for only about 20 songs.

Unless of course, they don't give you the picture perfect lip-synced band in the background. That could save some space, and look lame. I'm sure someone over there has a plan. My Wii hasn't been tested like this before...

Malthius

@ThursdayNext: 30 to 60 MB. 4 or 5 audio tracks (1 for each instrument plus other stuff), plus note charts.

brainwav

@Gray665:

Reggie says, "Not my problem!"

OtherAdam

So I guess Nintendo's going to announce this at their big press event after they detail their plans for the Wii's storage problem. I have friends who nearly have an entire 20GB hard drive filled with only RB DLC, so more space will be needed.

FLYmeatwad

@Gray665:
Better buy a big-ass SD memory card...

Lazlo

How big is a song file? Isn't this going to fill up the flash drive pretty swiftly not just a Geek / Otaku problem anymore is it hey? Hey?!?

ThursdayNext

@Sutekh: well, maybe theyll use the ea nation system to avoid that. or do whatever the hell gh aerosmith did. maybe. hopefully.

bigman88zz

And where are all of these DLC songs supposed to be stored on the Wii?

Gray665

hmm. im still going to need an official press release to go by. get to it harmonix! why so tight lipped?

bigman88zz

I didn't know USA Today was Harmonix.

Clarke

Of what good does DLC is for Rock Band 2 when I can't even find Rock Band 1 available anywhere in my country!?

Youre really giving away the market to Guitar Hero World Tour withotu a fight over here, Hermonix.

Shiryu

Awesome, I hope this will be compatible with the GH4 guitar though:P

NBoy

@VakeroRokero:

The numbers on it dont seem to make it a lame duck. And whats the prob long term? Now with RB2 offering DLC people who got RB1 can get into the DLC craze?

Modus_Operandi

All we need now is people to forgive Harmonix for the lame duck that was Rockband 1 for the Wii.

VakeroRokero

The version's not crippled. Yaaaayyy!

oh wait, FCs. dammnit

Sutekh

Will be interesting to see how they pull this off for the Wii

phantomlink

very cool

jeremyschultz

Good, this will make the competition between GH:WT and RB2 fair on the Wii too. A lot of people were going for GH just because of DLC.

chemical_eng_mx

@FLYmeatwad: not possible dude. i have about 75% of the dlc plus the tracks from the first game saved on my hdd and it only takes up about 4 - 5gb.

its do-able with flash memory but i doubt they will let you save tracks to any sort of portable media, otherwise people would just copy the files or switch out sd cards from console to console, right?

BruzeWayne

@Yin:
Well, I just downloaded Rush's Moving Pictures album tallying in at 241 MBs, for seven songs. Basic math tells me that each song file is about 34.43 megabytes each, but you must remember that most songs on the album or kinda lengthy. I'd have to say that Malthius's theory is fairly accurate.

Lazlo

@Lazlo: A 4gb SD is dirt cheap, how much space can a song take up?

Yin

@chemical_eng_mx: not just dlc, online and creation. but, if this is true, then my choice to go with gh:wt will not be set in stone anymore. now, lets see if instruments will be cross compatible. if so, then i'll be able to buy both and be a very happy consumer.

bigman88zz

Awesome, because otherwise RB2 really didn't have much to compete with GH:WT. And this hopefully inadvertently confirms the yet-unannounced Wii storage solution.

I just hope they fix the other nerfs too. The game needs world tour and customizable characters. I don't care if it doesn't look as great as the xbox 360; it can't....and does it really matter anyway? Music games generally aren't judged on graphics alone.

Fix that, Harmonix, and basically, all is forgiven on RB1.

Ber'Zophus

Well, they couldn't make up an excuse now that GH has DLC.. :P

CockroachMan

@Yin: But the manual of the Wii as well as online specs say that that the Wii doesn't accept a bigger SD card then 2GB.

This isn't a issue per say as long as the game allows access to a memory card to load songs. If not then well...

StormdragonBlue

now nintendo definitely has to introduce a hard drive for wii

otimus02

Clean... fridge...

Count_Elmdor

@alienorgy69: i figured as much, but how do you link all the dlc to a specific console if you dl it to an sd card? wouldn't you just be able to pop that sd card into ANYone's wii and it would find the songs?
maybe i just dont know that much about drm but I didn't think it was that sophisticated.

BruzeWayne

@BruzeWayne: Ninty is hardcore about that. Everything downloaded is tied to the specific console. No copying for anyone (last, last year's DRM complaint, maybe...?)

alienorgy69

Nintendo: GIVE US A HARDDRIVE. NOW. Stop fucking around and insulting your fans with bullshit about a goddamn (mini)fridge. If I'm a big fat guy who loves to eat, you know what I do? I go buy a BIGGER FRIDGE. If my favourite company doesn't make a big fridge, I then go buy from another company.

To hell with SD cards-- especially since SDHC cards are still a no-go. If you wanted to download and play twenty songs, how many SD cards would you need to swap in and out? How about 40 songs, or 100?

I mean... wtf? Why the resistance? How does a harddrive HURT the cause?

Fellow gamers, I'm apparently dumb as crap... could someone please explain the reluctance behind making this a completely optional thing to me? The causals can keep playing WiiFit withoug buying it, although with games like Samba De Amigo offering DLC, the line is becoming blurred...

Sorry, I still don't get the reluctance. Whether it's something proprietary or the ability to USB in *any* HD, wouldn't this be a good thing for all involved?

dae_giovanni

@Yin: The Wii's SD slot only goes up to 2 gigs

alienorgy69

@phantomlink:

GH4 for the Wii was announced to have DLC through SD cards; I suppose RB2 will use a similar approach.

Grodesh

Thats fantastic stuff, this is so great! Finally, Harmonix take the bleeding thumb out!

excel_excel

Reading game content from SD cards has already been done. I'm guessing it will be a similar setup for RB2.

BadSector

@Malthius: Maybe they'll do the backgrounds in realtime this time, like GHWT is going to. Of course that would force HMX to admit that they could have done it all along and just didn't bother.

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc

in all honesty, the moment nintendo announces a hard drive, i think everyone will complain about the price and wish they would support external hard drive use rather than being forced to buy nintendo's drive.

bigman88zz

@Ber'Zophus: it definitely needs world tour mode considering there is no solo career mode in RB2...
but its gotta be in there. otherwise there would be no point in releasing a wii version. it would just be quickplay and training mode. that would make for a pretty shitty update of the game.

BruzeWayne

Maybe they'll also give us the Rock Band 1 stuff too!

PatMan33

Honestly, the console cost $250 at launch... it was cheap because it had no HD in either of its two commonly used industry terms: Hard Drive and Hi Def.

I can't believe all the people who inevitably pop up on these Wii threads and complain that their econo-line console and the games produced for it) don't share all the functionality of their big brothers on the PS3 and 360.

Ironically, the people who often bitch the loudest about Nintendo's continuing avoidance of all things online are the first to jump down a non-Wii owner's throat for making identical observations, or a valid point about the subpar software quality and overall depth of the library.

For the record, I own a Wii, I've just been thoroughly disappointed with the end result of what turned out to be some pretty lofty marketing speak about "revolutionary motion controls that will change the way you play" (waggle, waggle).

I like Smash, I like Mario Kart... but when all my friends want to play Rock Band on the 360, well, there's been some dust on that Wii ever since I beat Galaxy recently.

Jonaconda

@Jestersage: Perhaps the fact that song made in WT can't be covers of other bands, and that created songs have to be under 3 minutes or 1200 notes.

vedicardi

@Jestersage: GHWT releasing a month earlier? Oh, wait, no, that's not a selling point for Rock Band.

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc

@CockroachMan: Not to mention Samba De Amigo.

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc

Still need something to persuade me buying this instead of GHWT for Wii.

Jestersage

@bigman88zz: In my mind, it works like this:

Universal USB HD support > Wii-branded proprietary >
NOTHING

Give us a choice. Even a less-than-perfect choice is better than zero choice at all. Some people will complain about absolutely anything, so, some of that is inevitable... but that's not a good reason to offer zero realistic storage options.

dae_giovanni

@vedicardi: I am wondering does it cover the covers of J-rock, because that's what I am planning to do. The thing is that tehcnically, Activision cannot touch upon songs that are not licensed in North America... so I can probably do some random J-rock songs.

Besides, 3 minutes is quite a lot. A lot of bemani songs are under two minutes, and I already feel like running a marathon.

Jestersage

Yeah we can download about 3 songs before running out of space!

Cragnous

I had been very hesitant to buy RB 1 or 2 on Wii. This is pushing me even more to buy a RB2 Wii standalone guitar and the games as a solo gamer who is neither a drummer nor a singer. Likewise, I own a GH3 guitar so buying the game disc of GHWT is a definite for the songs-to-cost value alone.

Vysion

@vedicardi: That's not a plus for rock band, though, that's just a not so plus for GH like it was before, but it is still better than nothing, and i'm pretty sure we'll gonna get some amazing stuff there, just not covers of famous songs. And people will get a way around the limitation, at least i hope so :P.

A real plus for rockband would be that the way they handle DLC right now is way better than GH, in the matter of being able to choose to buy full albums or single songs.

All in all i'm glad Harmonix finally came into their senses and will end up making a worthwhile game for the wii. I'm not gonna buy it for wii, but you can't just ignore this little console that could now that it has shown that music games on it sell really well.

Falsoman

@vedicardi: Still an improvement over Rock Band's no user created songs whatsoever.

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc

Will they be midi tracks or something? I really can't fathom any other way around the size problem. I've almost filled up my 360's 20gb already with mostly RB DLC.

dowingba

@NBoy: I'm sorry, but they won't be. I think Activision confirmed it. One game uses the Wii remote as an interface, on uses USB, and neither seem to want to code in "drivers" to make their competitors instruments work. On Wii, unless you're a singer, you'll have to buy two sets of instruments.

jonaswan2

HOLY CRAP! WII WITH DLC! WHATS THE WORLD COME TOO! srry for the caps.........

Cheroro

oh god. from hmxsean of the rock band forums:

I am happy to confirm what was said in the USA Today article. We've been hard at work with Pi Studios to fit as much as humanly possible onto the Wii version of the game. It won't be exactly the same but it will have the modes everyone has come to love on the other systems.

I also had no idea this announcement was coming out today or else I would have tried to have something up here to announce it side by side. Oh well!
Reply With Quote

link: [www.rockband.com]

well. i guess they werent bullshitting after all

bigman88zz

@bigman88zz: I second that. Compatibility between the two stopped from picking up either RB or GH3 for the Wii.

alienorgy69

@BruzeWayne: I suppose it'll still be console specific. Their restrictions have been strict. A Virtual Console game that's copied to an SD card can't be played on any other Wii other than your own. I'm assuming this will work much in the same way.

alienorgy69

@dae_giovanni: What annoys me is they only need a firmware update to support SDHC.
What annoys me further is we still can't run anything from an SD card anyway(officially).

PokeParadox

@vedicardi: I'm pretty sure you can still make covers, just not upload them to the GH tunes thingy >_>. And what's to stop people from putting charts on websites.. sure copying a song note for note from someone else's work would be more tedious than just downloading it but it's better than nothing

Ghar

@PokeParadox: >_> you can load and run stages in brawl directly from an sd card

Ghar

Thank you Harmonix for finally doing something with the console besides using it as a toilet.

Unfortunately Activision already beat you to the punch. Instead of complaining about a lack of a Wii HD, they sat down and worked out how DLC will work. They've introduced a song creator, and they said the Wii version won't be gimped from the other versions. I'll still be fully willing to buy Rock Band 2, if you make your instruments compatible.

Saxboy

Finally, Nintendo is coming around. Now if they can just stay the course.

Ryodestined

Too little, too late Harmonix. RB1 came out way late and way gimped, which really hurt your share in the Wii market. And besides, Rock Band is just plain boring >_>

Ghar

@bigman88zz: It won't be exactly the same? I'd like to know exactly what features would be missing...

Aside from the identical graphic quality (duh).

Guess I'll have to wait until they release the full feature list for all versions.

eugaet

@otimus02:
It would be nice of Nintendo would introduce a new hard drive storage device... but they don't need to do shit.

You could download stuff to an SD Card, just like in Excite Truck, you can listen to your music from the SD Card while playing, therefore, downloading addons to the SD Card will work out just fine.

shittorainbow

GAR! Now I wish that the GHWT instruments would work with RB2. I've already pre-ordered, and completely paid off Guitar Hero: World Tour my rationale being that I wouldn't by Rock Band as long as the dissed my only console.

Well now they've come to their senses. Hopefully the have the same SD card system Vicarious Visions put in place for the Wii.

Now Nintendo, make Harmonix and RedOctane play nice and make their instruments compatible with one another. Even though only one uses the standard of your wii-remote.

freetyme

I'm still sticking with Guitar Hero World Tour. Better song list. Plus custom songs, so, you know, win win.

bfwings55

@Ryodestined: nintendo was already "coming around" hell, they were so far round, they were down the road, sleeping on the kerb.

They were just waiting for the bloody bus load of developers to catch up to them and use the fricking stuff they got.

This wasn't a problem of nintendo, this was lazy THID PARTY GAMES DEVELOPERS who the majority wants only to put shovelware up and in denial of the wii capacity.

If you want to blame nintendo for hardware problems blame the limitability of only having four wireless bluetooth wiimote controllers at any one time or the limitability of outdated SD reader that cannot use SDHC.

those are something that are hands down, nintendo's problems.

Onizuka-GTO

@Modus_Operandi:

The numbers on it may not SEEM lame duck because it was the first full-band music genre game for the Wii. But the fact is that RB for the Wii was a piece of shit. And now that GH:WT is coming out for the Wii with more features and much more brand recognition, RB is fucked.

They shouldn't have tried the easy-cash-in approach.

NeoAkira

Add GH guitar compatibility and I'm sold.

Red_Maniac

@BruzeWayne: Save files are encrypted, and signed by the console, before being copied to the SD card. I believe something similar could be done for DLC, to encrypt it and sign it with a specific console's key (or somesuch), so that other consoles can't read it, or will refuse to read it.

Tasunke

There's got to be some kind of Wii storage solution coming. There's no way these guys are putting so much confidence in this without knowing something we don't.

SturokBGD

Being crippled by FCs is like not gaming anymore because the power button on your 360 controller is difficult to press or because your respective console was too heavy to lift out of the box. Most people only bother registering the FCs/Gamertags/PSNIDs of maybe 10 people max. Now, is it LESS convenient than a universal system to have to do it for each game? Sure. But the extra 2 minutes it takes to put in a FC for each game is largely negligible.

ZanipoloWallaby

NICE! Wii's online capabilities and Wii Shop Channel have sooo much potential. Now to change the ugly Shop Channel layout nad background music...

jaymac

@PokeParadox:

Hopefully that is all it needs unless they made it with a reader that hardware wise does not support SDHC.

datafox

This is certainly nice.

I am, however, still considering just getting myself an Xbox for this kind of game - considering [www.joystiq.com] it'd hurt my wallet less in the long run if I get a 360 & buy GH:WT & RB2, either version with all the instruments & the other with just a guitar.

Maykie